List country's band/artist, album, TV show, film - Progressive Rock Music Forum

^ Good Moaning Tongue

The Netherlands

Band: Earth & Fire

Album: Tax Free

Solo Artist: Jan Akkerman

Symphonic Metal: Within Temptation

Singer: Sharon den Adel

Actor: Rutger Hauer

Film: Amsterdamned

TV Show: Van der Valk

Comedy: Dutch Cops on the Fast Show

Cheese: Edam

China

Album: "Míng Míng" by otay:onii (2021)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Film: Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Leading Lady: Gong Li
TV Series: Three-Body (2023) (still not nearly finished, but based on The Three-Body Problem novels like the 2024 Netflix series).

China has been one of my favourite nations for film, and especially Zhang Yimou had a huge impact on me in my 20s. Seeing his Red Sorghum and Chen Kaige's Farewell Mi Concubine set off a long -running passion.

I really like that Ming Ming album and has been one of my favourite of this decade along with the Chinese born Pan Daijing's Tissue (2022). I have seen complaint that we do not seem to care much about the arts from a wide enough international perspective, but my experience is that considerable numbers of people here have appreciated music, films, TV and authors from around the world. And it's not all/just about the "hits" (although I generally prefer a hit to a miss).

Edited by Logan - April 14 2024 at 20:22

Duos for fave acts

Thanks for all the responses; glad to see people coming up with more categories.

Denmark

Favourite Band: Secret Oyster
Favourite Album: Szabodelico by Causa Sui (2020)
Favourite Director: Lars von Trier
Favourite Film: Europa (1991) (international co-production including Denmark)
Favourite Series: Riget (The Kingdom) (1994)
Favourite Blue Cheese: Danish Blue (not to be confused with Norwegian blue parrots)

Anna von Hausswolff now resides in Denmark, but I treat her as Swedish. When it comes to Demark for me for the arts, von Trier is "the man".

Edited by Logan - April 14 2024 at 13:35

Duos for fave acts

Germany

Band: Tangerine Dream

Album: Shibuya Nights by Agitation Free

Solo Artist: Manuel Goettsching

TV Show: 'Allo 'Allo

Film: Das Boot

Stalingrad

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - April 14 2024 at 03:51

Cristi wrote:

Also why wouldn't a 2004 movie hold up. That just makes me feel old.

My apologies, I should have phrased myself better: the movie's age isn't the issue, rather that when I watch a film enough times it tends to lose its magic for me, but Downfall never has.

In other news, the UK!

Best artist: Genesis

Best album: National Health - National Health

Best TV show: Blackadder

Best film: Children Of Men

Freelance composer, accepting commissions | Bandcamp page

Cristi wrote:

presdoug wrote:

Germany

Favourite film: Downfall

That's a great movie, a bit disturbing (the Goebbels family subplot), I recently rewatched it, just as good as ever.

I watch it again ever so often and keep being surprised at how well it holds up. Portraying Hitler in an earthly manner as sickly, pathetic, recognizably human instead of the abstract figure that he is in most people's minds, while still emphasizing the irredeemable evil of his personality and his actions, was a really tall order but the filmmakers and actor Bruno Ganz pulled it off masterfully. It's interesting from that light how Goebbels and his wife are portrayed in a way that actually does make them seem alien and non-human, not just because of their mere actions in said disturbing scene but their whole demeanour while doing it: the lack of expression on their faces, their robotic movement, the lack of any reaction to the death and destruction surrounding them. An extremely powerful and unapologetically realistic look into history's most horrible and twisted minds.

um, anyway, this is a great thread that I'll try to keep coming back to! For now I'll start with the USA:

* Best artist: Frank Zappa
* Best album: The Mothers Of Invention - Uncle Meat

* Best TV show: Star Trek - Deep Space 9 (talk about the opposite of mankind's nadir as portrayed in Downfall: a sublime celebration of all the values that fascism opposes, starring the deepest and most relatable cast out of any Star Trek series; it's just unbelievable to me how good this show is)

* Best film: Jacob's Ladder

Freelance composer, accepting commissions | Bandcamp page

presdoug wrote:

Cristi wrote:

presdoug wrote:

Germany

Favourite film: Downfall

That's a great movie, a bit disturbing (the Goebbels family subplot), I recently rewatched it, just as good as ever.

Thanks; for sure it is a great film, but disturbing (my sister could not get through it due to the Goebbels family section) The whole Nazi machine was our worst fears realised, but I figure it has to be remembered to be learned from.....

Another great German movie about WW2 is Stalingrad (1993).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108211/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Stalingrad

Also a difficult watch in places...

Austria

Band: Anthropods

Album: Himmelfahrt by Blank Manuskript

Artist: Erwin Wurm

Film: The Wall (Die Wand)

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i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag
that's a happy bag of lettuce
this car smells like cartilage
nothing beats a good video about fractions

progaardvark wrote:

Sweden

Band: Anekdoten

Musical Artist: Rikard Sjöblom

Album: A Drop of Light, by All Traps on Earth

Film: Aniara

Sculptor: Johan Paalzow

Aniara would be my pick too. Yet, as far as I recall, it is a Sweden/Denmark movie.

Sweden

Band: Anekdoten

Musical Artist: Rikard Sjöblom

Album: A Drop of Light, by All Traps on Earth

Film: Aniara

Sculptor: Johan Paalzow

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i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag
that's a happy bag of lettuce
this car smells like cartilage
nothing beats a good video about fractions